My Rant on Halloween

WARNING!

WARNING!

WARNING!

This is seriously a really long rant on Halloween, so if you are in the mood to hear me whine, I highly recommend this entry. If not, I say skip reading this entry and just look at how cute my baby is in his new pajamas my mother bought him!

Jack's Great Aunt Liz, who could practically be his older sister because she does not look like the Great Aunt type, is a fellow blogger. She has two little girls just slightly older then Jack. Well, the other day she blogged about Halloween, and how the fun in it has disappeared and become more commercial. She said she remembered as a child how one of her favorite things to do was to go through her parents closet and make a costume for Halloween. Now, even though I didn't do that, I do remember as a kid wearing hand-me-down home-made costumes and actually being the same thing multiple times a year after year. On occasion, I would get to "make" my costume with what clothes I already had (once I was a hockey player because I was on a hockey league. You can hit way more houses on roller blades, too!).

Anyway, for Halloween last year, I spent A LOT of money on our three costumes to do the Star Wars theme. I mean, a ridiculous amount of money, not just because I'm in debt, but even rich people would laugh at the number I spent. I did want to buy our stuff used, but since it was the first year Lucas Films had released these costumes, I could only buy them brand spankin' new. Now, don't get me wrong, Jack was the cutest chewbacca you've ever laid eyes on, but he wore the costume for about 2-3 hours tops. After that, I've had it in the eBay box for Halloween. When I went to list it on eBay, EVERYONE was selling their toddler's costume for $1. And even my hot Princess Leia costume wasn't go for much more then that . So here I am left with Star Wars costumes that won't sell and we only had 2 hours of fun in them. And by fun, I mean Jack ripping it off because it was itchy and me feeling fat in the skin tight costume that accented my saddle bags perfectly.

So this year we were going to do a Toy Story family theme for Halloween. First we were going to be the cast of Stargate, but everyone kept telling me no one would recognize who we were, so I got really discouraged. So then we came up with Toy Story. Jack would be Buzz Lightyear, I would be Bo Peep, and Kevin would be Woody the Cowboy. I was so excited for all of this! I budgeted the costumes and was shocked at how expensive they were new and used. But I didn't care because I wanted the family Halloween experience for Jack. Then I read Great Aunt Liz's blog on how she cracked and bought one of her daughters a very expensive Halloween costume because that is what her little angel wanted. Afterwards she had buyers remorse, she went back to return it and guess what! No returns at the Halloween Store. She later said on her facebook that her daughter could have just been Snow White since she already owned a Snow White costume. In fact, I'm sure Great Aunt Liz could have made her a costume because she's one of those awesome sewers that can make anything (looking for a Dorothy costume from Wizard of Oz? That's her specialty!)

So this got me thinking... why am I doing all of this? Why am I so eager to spend so much money on something we don't need? So I talked to Kevin and he said that he didn't care and to just buy Jack a costume and we'll take him out trick-or-treating. I thought that was great, except when I went shopping for costumes. Can you believe Target wanted up to $40 for some costumes for a TODDLER? No, not going to happen. I called my dad and he said I should burn some cork and put it on his face as a beard and make him into a hobo, because that is what he and my Uncle Rich did for years as kids. So 1953, but not a bad idea. Then a few people told me they got their kid's costumes at the Goodwill which is like, seriously one of my favorite places to shop. Why didn't I think of that?! So, I'm going to go to the Goodwill tonight and see what I can find.

Anyway, this was just my little rant on Halloween. I'm bummed out because it used to be all about candy and fun, and now it's all about girls getting to dress like hookers (guilty!) and kids wanting to wear the most expensive costume they can find in the store. Jack may just be 2 now and not have a concept of the Halloween thing, but by next year, he'll be begging me to buy him some ultra expensive costume. And when that happens, I will send him to his Aunt Laura's house. She's much better at telling him "no!" then me.

And this concludes my Halloween rant.